Thread: Shorten your .17 HMR ???

30calterry mentioned he d like to shorten the Marlin Heavy Barrelled .17 HMR as they are a pretty bulky heavy unit.
I did some research and found enough info to throw it all in a picture in case some were thinking the same.
It looks like a small velocity loss for a bit of weight loss and better handling ability. (Use at your own risk but reckon Ill go to 16" from 22)
All the information I found stressed to find someone would re-crown it properly !!



Any one agree / disagree or been there done that ?? before it gets the " CHOP "

Interesting reading, the results are more eratic than I would have thought and how the 19" was faster.
If the "Spread" is an indication of accuracy especially out at the 170',. would the 15" give you better groupings?

interesting, not linear.

one assumes a decent crony was used and shots taken in same state of cleanliness.

Berry barrels did a review several years ago progressively shortening and recrowning one of their own barrels. Their conclusion was that the sweat spot was 18". I have shortened my Martini single shot heavy barrel 17HMR to 18" and it is an excellent shooter.

The spread is the inconsistent speeds of the factory ammo so at 22" length there were chrony readings 103 fps seconds different between highest and lowest so they averaged the 5 shots.

The rifle was cleaned and crowned identically after every inch cut off.
There were lots of sites where 19 inches for the .17 was the fastest fps measured and a good spot if looking for peak fps.

For say 16" which is 6" shorter than current 22" with no loss in accuracy (due to possibly getting a better crown than what,s been done)
25 Fps loss of speed for the round with lets face it , say max range of 200 to 250 in no or f all wind should be fine is really the question

Or is that a huge difference which could cause problems ? Suppose I m unsure of what changes in fps mean but this is a small one ..

You'd hardly notice 250 feet per second in the real world let alone 25

Cut it Happy and let me know if it works, if it's OK I'll do mine, and make a pistol from the left over

Bashed it quickly into Strelok, if zeroed at 100yds then that 25fps difference results in 0.2 inches more drop and 0.1 inches more drift (5mph wind) at 200yds. So you probably aren't going to notice the difference.

Gimps 250fps difference would be 2.6" more drop and 1.3" more 5mph wind drift at 200yds though, a bit more significant.

I'd rather have a 10 inch shorter gun than that 2.6 inches less drop

Fair enough, personal taste. I think I'd go 18" myself.

Shit I'll have to take it from the breach end, I've just had it threaded for a suppressor, unless I can drop 4" from the middle?

Originally Posted by Maca49

Shit I'll have to take it from the breach end, I've just had it threaded for a suppressor, unless I can drop 4" from the middle?

Yeah cut it in the middle Maca then weld it back up he he

Thanks all I ll start at 16 and see how it goes Plus I ll try to find a trigger mod as its like heavy as

I reckon you could crush rocks with some of those Marlin factory triggers! Mind you the 10/22s I've used were no better. If you want a nice factory trigger in a rimfire then you buy a Savage instead.

Got a heavy barrel savage .17hmr shortened to 18" shoots sweet done a bit of study like yourself & decided 18 was a good place to start